A Valles based corporation, who’s main corporate offices in the Fenard building in Marfos city were targeted in a devastating attack that destroyed the entire tower they were housed in, killing 375 in the building, including non-sandstone employees and countless other hapless lower-class citizens who’s homes were below the structure. It is fairly likely that Sister Maynar is responsible for these attacks.

The contract that included the black ops mission to Kolono was part of something called Operation Blackfriar. According to the dossier, Sister Maynar was referred to as Ms. Danforth; and was an agent of the Baronial Privy Council. After the attack on Kurlou City, this story started to unravel. Zaniel thinks it is far more likely that she worked for the Rok’kannon Corp, but even that is suspect. The initial confirmation from the Privy Council turned out to be erroneous – though the money paid was genuine. They just didn’t get to spend much of it. Zaniel reckons that given the current situation the Baronial Exchequer probably seized all of Sandstone’s accounts – or is in a fight with the Guild to do so.

Ms. Danforth paid Sandstone in kronotium ingots. Fairly rare and fairly expensive. They are found on Valles and generally associated with religious relics.

Sandstone had two helicopters: a larger troop transport, and a smaller missile/gun platform. The troop transport was reduced to shredded metal in the attack at Kurlou City. The attack ship was supporting a mission for the Baronial Navy when the Marfos City bombing happened. The Baronial Navy took over the contract/lease. Both were leased from the Ares Corporation, an off-world (out of system) military contractor and arms manufacturing (mega) corp.

It is likely that there might be one remaining Sandstone contractor alive who was involved in Operation Blackfriar. Hibiscus Shrude was a Communications Tech. Prior to the mission she took ill: some sort of virus she had contracted on previous mission to Basuki. She was replaced day of the mission. Last known address was in Ervinbluff, a mid-sized city between Port Horwold and Marfos City. She was an experienced operative and likely went to ground following the bombing of the Fenard Building.

Valles based crime lord. Extremely successful. Could provide us with gate keys.

Mr. Eullent will furnish us with a Caliban-Arachnae Solaris jump key if we can eliminate Sister Maynar. Preferred proof is target’s head delivered in a bag.

Possible next steps

1. Travel to Ervinbluff as quietly as possible and try to locate Hibiscus Shrude, the only living person who can tell us more about Operation Blackfriar. Especially important because Sister Maynar will likely be hunting her if she knows of her survival.

2. In general, find out as much as we can about Operation Blackfriar.

3. Locate records related to the use of the attack ship by the Baronial Navy in an effort to determine if Sister Maynar is still using it, i.e. working with the Navy.

4. Attempt to trace any use of Kronotium ingots. A rare currency that could reveal the location of Sister Maynar.

5. Travel to Kurlou City and look for any clues as to Maynar’s involvement and current whereabouts.

Khiron’s contact in the Valles underworld. Tace works for Mr Arioch, one of the Big Three, a crime boss just under criminal mastermind Mr Eullent.

Eldaar: Strictly speaking, they are non-human. They are an old race in the Empire. Kindlenomicon references the Eldaar as the source of corruption (note: not source of Unlife). At one point in time, the Eldaar opposed the Unlife but something happened in the past. They are scattered all over the Empire and often act as ‘agents’ of the Royal Houses.

Thorne’s notes on the Eldaar from the Kindlenomicon:
The Eldaar once opposed the unlife, and possibly still do, but have been corrupted. Possibly through prolonged contact with their foes or through the ruthlessness required to oppose such entities. Either way, their corrupt influence has spread through the halls of power in the Empire; specifically the Church Celestial, the Emperor and the Noble houses have all fallen under their sway. This makes them responsible for the enforced religious anti-technology stance the Empire has taken.

The previous owner of the kindlenomicon, the “architect,” was trying to obtain something called the Dark Key which would open a corresponding gate, through which the “enemies of the Eldaar” would flow forth, ending their corruption. What the gate, the key and the “enemies” are need to be determined.

Blue ‘Jade’

The substance that is essentially the impetus of project Blackfriar. We know remarkably little about it. At least in context of the Church’s recent actions. We know that it acts as a psionic amplifier.

What we don’t know:
1. Why the church wants it, now, all of a sudden.
2. What, actually, it is, not just what it does. What are it’s origins, why is it psionically active, etc.
3. Where it occurs. Does it only ‘grow’ on Valles? Why or why not?

Was Blackfriar all about Blue Jade, and if so, why did that need to be covered up? What possible goal could be worth destroying an entire corporation to conceal?

Caitlyn's vlog

Add useful info here, after everyone’s cleaned up and no longer smells of dead planets and holo-suite Arabian Nights.

Back. It is still jarring after all of these months to see Carter’s cabin. All of his things just so, his clothes creased and folded in that frustratingly anal retentive precise manner of his. I still marvel that just across the veil of reality – there he is. Perhaps looking into a similar cabin and wondering about odds and probability. After all, he died so long ago, yet here he was, my doppelgänger in so many ways. Makes me want to go back to the Academy days to recreate some of those chem experiments in retro-psychedelism.

Enough melancholy. Here we are back in the clean. I can actually take off the skin suit and put on some real cotton shorts, fire up a late and think about what the hell we just went through – new worlds, strange cultures represented by the odd distaff jumbled in a cosmic shed, with an immersive story mode theater (or a reality projection chamber which is far to disturbing to contemplate on any significant level).

Last I remember from the theater is we were meandering through the bowels of some Lovecraftian RPG book adventure, we had defeated… the captain? And then we found…. stones and then…… nothing. Back in the shed. Getting mindfucked is not high on my list of positive outcomes. I hope there are no lasting effects from… whatever happened.

Whatever. Lightsaber goddess chick was back to Thorne, who was unsure what to do with the samurai armor and energy sword. N8 at least is back to a proper Combatron fascade instead of the whirling rock dervish. I will admit though, the ability to channel magic and reality according to the rules of story land was… rather intoxicating.

We emerged not only restored to normalcy but also bearing three stones. On examination they were determined to be magical artifacts, which naturally means to my scanners they were inert carbon-silicates. This is where I should flounce in some way. lets out an audible sigh

The stones are a vantablack thing called the soul of chaos. The next is a ‘whorlstone’ (seen by some on their native Altimere – now that sounds an interesting place for a plasma rifle and a psycho-anthropologist) called the mind of balance. Finally there was the Stone of harmony which Khiron turned into a flashlight.

The biggest sad bit about leaving the shed was our inability to take the EZPort with us. I imagine such a thing could come in use in the future. It stayed behind so we could return to Chofa and confront the possessed flora.

Oh! Before I forget, I need to make certain Janet uploads the images of the portraits to the wiki. The odds that Aldemeri gods would appear in the cosmic storage shed is…. Who am I kidding? A veritable certainty at this point.

Back to Chofa. The ghosts wanted us to complete a ritual to release their spirits from the eternal planetary prison. So off Thorne went to a subterranean adventure while I flew the rest of the crew on the Noxious Nightmare back to Venture. Back in CIC we found out that the Hawkwoods and our native guide had been wisely frozen before they pushed a button somewhere and exploded the ship mistaking the Fusion reactors for an espresso machine.

RIght. Soon after Thorne did his VooDoo and freed a billion dead lizard men, an undead space dragon showed up at the outer edge of the system piloted by Captain Space Liche Pirate who was pisssed they couldn’t eat the psychic energy of the planet.

We jumped the hell away from that nonsense.

So Magic. I need to learn it. Because Space Liches and crap.

I need to practice the Lotus position and try to listen to Thornes explainations about Mystical Chakra concuntrums and Ley forces of the cosmic balance whositswhatever. I fucking hated spirituality courses. Maybe if I can get though that tome on Ethical Spiritualy I’ll be in the right mindset to understand what the blighted hell’s he is blathering on about.

In the Tunnels

This one notices a glint of metal down a side corridor. Cordelia says there is a metal spider that they avoid. The area is filled with metallic webs. Unfortunately Khiron gets stuck and the metal spider attacks, coming out from the wall. It cannot be. The wall is not real and this one is able to slip into a surprisingly large chamber. The spider is defeated. Examination of the chamber reveal several bundles of webs, the spider’s victims. One moves and Caitlyn phases him out of the web.
Roofo is simple in the head. He claims that Arachris (priest of Set) was going to sacrifice Skillvashra (pretty girl) and Roofo wanted to save her. But he got lost and was captured by the spider. He agrees to lead us to the Temple of Set.

Roofo heads down the tunnel to where the necrophages collect the bodies. There the sheriff and his five men attack us. The sheriff is unnaturally fast. This one can barely dodge his strikes. Even then, the barest scratch injures this body as stone chips fly away. Gabriel paralyzes one of the deputies. The others manage to bring one down. This one sacrifices accuracy for power. The strike is true and the sheriff looks surprised. Then the coward calls for a retreat. He moves so fast but his deputies are not. Another one falls but two get away. We capture the paralyzed one.

The captive is belligerent and uncooperative. However he lets slip that “magics” enhance the sheriff. The thought of murdering the captive is distasteful this one. Apparently so do the others. The deputy walks away but should our paths cross again in battle, there will be a reckoning.

Further down the tunnel, Khiron finds a secret door. It is keyed to a specific object but Caitlyn is able to “summon” it out of thin air. The lion headed signet ring fits perfectly into the door to a crypt. The room appears looted as the sarcophagus is filled with riches while the bones are thrown into the corner of the room. The many coins would likely be from those captured travelers who have been sacrificed to Set. The room has a passage way out. It ends abruptly but there must be another secret door. It is heavy but it can be opened.

Beyond the door we see black curtains. Caitlyn ghost her way in but the large room is empty, the braziers unlit. Roofo says there are stairs that lead up to the manor. He says a password is needed to be safe. He teaches us the password but this one is dubious of the simpleton’s memory. Despite the password, as soon as we cross the braziers, skeletal beings appear and attack us. They are extremely fast. Khiron summons forth Moffitt who gleefully joins the battle. With his help, the party is victorious.

Below the Temple of Mitra

Zamia finds and follows the wires from the trap door to loose stone in the ceilings. Khiron disarm the traps successfully This one is standing by the entrance when nets fall upon him. There are three men in white robes with lion headed pendants. However Zamia charms them. The men are named Thorndike (seedy), Andretti (greedy), and Anslim (weedy). They claim to be acolytes of the Mitra (lies) and serve Master Cornelius (probably the real head priest they murdered). They insist on leading the party down the trapdoor. Zamia’s manipulation of their egos is quite effective.

There is a large intricate door with jewels. Greed rolls off the acolyte and Thorndike cannot hold himself back. As soon as he touches the door, a golden warrior steps out. It commands us to stop defiling the temple, naming itself Holomere Goldheart. It stabs Thorndike. Anslim attempt to flee but Zamia stop him. He too is stabbed. Wounded Thorndike calls upon foul magics to plunge the room into darkness. However Khiron counters with a chant of his own disrupting the darkness. Andretti runs away. This one attempts to block his way out but was too slow. Andretti climbs up the ladder. This one chases him, barely dodging his foul magic on the ladder.

This one ducks a pew being swung at his head when he climbs back into the temple proper. There is another besides Andretti. This one strikes true. Facial bones break and there is one less opponent. The Andretti chants and darkness fills the temple. This one will not let him escape. Moving as fast as possible in the pitch dark in a room filled with pews, this one reaches the only entrance. The darkness does not extend beyond the temple and there is no sight of Andretti. In the village, dark robed figures appear to roam. This one hides while waiting for Andretti to make a break for it. Which he does, yelling and screaming. That is short lived as a dash and a strike brings him down. The others have noticed this commotion so this one drags the dead acolyte back towards the temple. This one targets one of the sheriff’s men but the rock bounces off his armor. This one yells, “Thou shall not have the treasures of the temple!” and walk back into the darkness. This one rejoins his companions beneath the trapdoor dropping the dead acolyte before him. The others have befriended two necrophages (Ghouls named Bendris and Cordelia). They recount the tales of the land.

Centuries ago the White Tower of Mitra stood. A village grew up around it. But followers of Set called upon their gods and a Black Tower of Set appeared and destroyed the village. The gods were offended and both towers sunk into the sands. The golden doors we stand before are the entrance to the White Tower. Those seeking the treasures of the towers created a new village. They dug for buried treasures. They found something but it cursed them with ageless bodies but tying them to the land. Leaving the area will cause those from the village to turn to dust. Three stones are the source of this curse.

Goldheart returns and offers the Knucklebones of Moffitt to the most pious. Khiron takes it. Apparently it can summon the Lion of Mitra, Moffitt of the Highlands. Khiron tries it and a ghostly figure emerges. The figure is seven feet tall, wearing golden platemail, armed with a wo handed sword, with cat like golden eyes, gloden hair in twin tails, and an enormous braided handlebar moustache. He can be summoned to fight against Set.

The necrophages lead us to Phreddie, their leader. The Settites feed them the dead from the passage beyond. There is a large statue of Mitra holding a snake and a scroll tube. Khiron detects that the scroll tube is in fact not affixed. He finds four invisible gem stones and and a map.

Awakening

This one is uncertain of events. Darkness. Then an awakening. Before full activity could be resumed, this one detected people who move through a dimensional rift in space. This one attempted to follow. Then there was change. This one is certain of being called N8. This one is certain of being an artificial construct. This one is certain of metal and ceramic and plastic. This one stares in wonder at a body now of stone and sand. Confusion.

There is an attack. Three robed men swing axes. N8 remembers skills. N8 parries the first blow and dodges the others. N8 is not alone. There are others also being attacked by these robed men. Although violent, they are unskilled. N8 dances on the sand’s surface confusing its enemies. A quick blow breaks bones and sends the attacker’s axe flying. A female is under attack. N8 aims and triggers the release. N8 remembers beams of light. Instead, a rock shoots out of N8’s palm. It still strikes the attacker with deadly efficiency. Most unusual.

The defenders drive off the attackers. The man is speaking to us. His name Is Yen Getti. He says the caravan master Mon Chander is missing. He suspects collusion between the master and the bandits. Yen Getti identifies this one as a free Jinn. Is that correct? N8 has no way to refute the current reality. The others of skill are all biological: a female named Caitlyn, a female named Zamia, a male named Arden, a male named Gabriel, and a male named Khiron. The caravan is traveling from Opar to Ofir. These words mean nothing to N8. The landscape is of desert and dunes. Location? Unknown.

There is a village nearby that we retreat to. Something is amiss. After partaking of drink and food at the bar, several of the party fall ill/sleep. Poison? This one retreats to the safety of the caravans, carrying two back.

Night deepens. The camp is surrounded. Two dozen figures emerge from the darkness. A net is thrown over N8. Again, skills come back as N8 easily slips off the net and begins the dance. Khiron is attacked. He appears to lack CQC capabilities. N8 goes to assist his new companion. The words of Gabriel has power. The ill companions rise, no longer ill. The tide turns. Once again the defenders drive off the attackers. Query. What to do next?

Caitlyn's vlog

Dwight and the zombie lizard can make amazing chili, enough to put the Texarkanans traditional cuisine to shame.

We were able to free the married couple of their perpetual zombie status. The rest of the guests disintegrated, but reuniting the Swan with their bodies freed them.

Which also destroyed Ms. Mummy. So much for needing to find her phylactery thing.

We managed to converse with maintenance worker in their weird ugly masks.

Then we found the Bondage Fun Room

Which lead to the golden machine.

That machine was a bit hair raising, as it sucked out My and Dwight’s souls. Luckily Ardwen was able to do some time shenanigans, coupled with Dwight’s magic-mumbo-jumbo and well, shooting it, caused it to slowly fall apart. Explosively.

We next proceeded to the clone decanting chamber. One looked rather like Chezza. Another ahem well endowed gentleman emerged. We had an interesting conversation, followed by him ripping a tear in reality and wandering off to his next engagement sans clothing.

…

I wish I could even make this nonsense up.

Next there were costume ball cannibals back in the gift room. The Cavalcade of Inane sallies forth. They foolishly brought knives to a firearms fight.

I’ve also got a bit of a note about the Marquis of Aoli and the Lady Torc. I believe those where the previously mentioned blissful newlyweds newly awakened from their slumber.

Final location we discovered was a giant Aboritum. Mr. Trundleball was able to map out the area and show me video of patrolling Orchizoids and a trapped…. Man? Adonis thing both trapped and engaging in a conjugal relationship with all of the ivy in the universe.

I think.

I’m still kind of hoping this is the result of some REALLY good drugs someone slipped me in the mess earlier. I’m assuming Ensign Cambridge. He does like the prank wars. I’m thinking graphene-transpolymeride in his underwear might be a good reply – it would turn into goo in the presence of the microwave after all. Seems appropriate.

Caitlyn's vlog

So there we were, facing a biomass on the dead planet. Thorne mouths off with a ‘Well, that’s that then’ and off he jumps through the Lizard’s portal. Leaving us without his psychic VooDoo staff +10 against getting your brain eaten by ghosts.

We all jumped through the portal after him following a comical moment (laugh track optional) of looking at each other in disbelief. Bloody hell and other insults to his lineage and bearing were bellowed.

We then spent a spot of time faffing about with the 20th century gizmos in the warehouse; a robot man, paintings, video disks. I found the pyramid control widget and started scanning the whatever out of it as it had…. blank spots lacking EM. Specifically there was a little black box of some sort.

I need to snag one of those to disassemble.

Whilst all of this was going on, Thorns were playing with some painting. He eventually mutters come look at this then and we found our self in a painting facing a woman having a bit of a bondage moment. Khiron somehow deftly avoided Thorn’s grasping and avoided the matter/space transferal painting.

So some more puttering about, interrogating whatshername, the boys boggling over a bit of nudity and off we went (Khiron in tow) to the next room.

Oh! I almost forgot, some cowhand that the group met elsewhere showed up folded in a box. He made a big deal about my skinsuit leaving my ankles exposed or some such retrograde neobarb wankery. The group seem pleased to see him there as Thornes are missing in action.

sighs

Of we went to meet a blue demon woman who was looking for ‘unique statues’. This began manderings and wanderings through;

an Escher painting where the non zero g rated people got a bit iffy.

A reception / cloak room with a talking peacock.

A wedding filled with dead attendees and the happy couple in stasis.

A Gift room with a Swan and a river of wine containing the souls of the happy couple and the officiator of the event.

A stone hallway filled with orchids.

The actual gift room filled with rotting things, an asymmetrical chandelier and a locked door.

I hopped through the door only to find a mummy woman named Safferonia Wort. She wants me to find her phylactery or whatever and destroy the golden machine.

I really have no idea what is happening, and beginning to suspect one of the boys put something exceptionally fun in the Whiskey – and clearly Olivia is in on it or she’d let me know. Time to run a diagnostic when I get back.

Is it normal for one to decide to run Neural diagnostics on the ships Imprint when hallucinating?

Right. Off to the next… thing in this place. Cavorting Roman mannikins I assume.

A ponderance. If Mr Cowhand is going to demand ‘Mr. Dwight’ should I reciprocate with ‘Captain Ser Hamilton-Smythe’? Or see if he’s reserving such things just for me?

Carter background data

The Voidship War

In the early stages of Terran expansion there was a splinter philosophical group known as ‘Evolvists’ who migrated in mass to Sol b (a brown dwarf star orbiting Sol prime out in the Kuiper belt). This group’s main focus was opposition to humanities expansion to other terrestrial worlds, fearing the elimination of proto-intelligent native species.

This group quickly made inroads into AI, neural mapping and bio machinery. They gave rise to the ‘Voidship’ class of vessel – what amounted to a self-replicating, intelligent bio-machine.

For whatever reason, the voidships declared war on humanity, destroying the Evolvist enclave and then began a string of vicious conflicts with the rest of human space. The war took over a decade and was ‘to the knife’ in every respect. Several colonies were destroyed before the main nest at Sol b was destroyed. The disturbing question that remain was what happened to the Evolvists? Many believe that the Voidships were in actually a violent Evolvist faction, given that the central voidship nest incorporated the central consciousness repository of the group, containing all uploaded individuals as well as their central AI nexus.

In the end though Node alpha was destroyed and there has not been a Voidship sighting in over 20 years. Observers are confident of humanities victory given that part of the entities lifecycle involves spectacular deep atmospheric dives into Jovian class planets.

The First Contact Conflict

The first contact war was caused by a simple misunderstanding, based on Humanities (apparently unique) use of the Einstein-Rosen bridge technology. The long distance exploration vessel ‘Endeavour’ arrived in a new star system, Mu Arae. As it turns out Mu Arae is a grav-lane nexus system for the polity knows as The Triumph of the Buul!’tcha, and as such is heavily militarized. Their reaction to an unknown vessel appearing in the middle of their star system, conforming to no known ID codes made them assume a pirate or assault vessel with some sort of failing stealth system. As such, they attacked without any warning. That would have been the end of it if the Endeavour had not been able to send off an emergency drone before destruction.

Fearing another Voidship nest, the Military Governor of outpost R-15 send a full reconnaissance in force. This resulted in a spectacular full naval engagement, with assault marines breaching Buul!’tcha Destroyers, multiple vessel casualties and all sorts of nonsense. Admiral McTimms withdrew after the mutual pummeling, but there was still no understanding what had happened. This pattern would repeat itself in the Mu Arae region, as exploration vessels would get ‘ambushed’ without warning, and then Dominion forces would arrive to smash the place.

From the Buul!’tcha perspective (not helped by their naturally xenophobic tendencies) unidentified scouts of non-galactic standard design kept appearing in impossible places followed by a military ‘raid’ of unknown reason.

From the Dominion perspective exploration vessels were getting ambushed without warning justifying reprisals.

An unholy mess in other words.

This went on for several years, until a Terran vessel encountered an actual Buul!’tch border region, who opened comms instead of assuming hostile intent and firing on arrival.

From that moment Terra became aware of galactic civilization, and the Galactics became aware of a new polity completely isolated from the standard grav-lane trade network equipped with a completely novel technology stack.

5 weeks of boredom

Venture, this is security chief Olis. Any changes… I mean significant changes to report since yesterday?
I see. How many days do we have until arrival?
Three… more… weeks.
Alright, this is driving me nuts. When I was in the Khallan campaign, we were stuck in place for a long time.. We had a lot of time to kill. Oh, the nobles kept us busy with crap work. But even then, there were still more time to kill. We practically had a little village. Sure, we had cobblers and coopers and smiths. That’s all necessary for the campaign. And camp followers, of course. But I’m talking about farming. We had a little vegetable patch we were tending. Nothing fancy but things that will grow fast, like radishes. We had a mason. He actually made bricks from that crappy mud. And we turned those bricks into an oven. And the baker made those flat breads in that oven. They sold well. We mostly kept those activities secret from the nobles. They would only muck it up. Anyway, the point is that even bored, we had a lot we could do. Here on this ship, it’s more like a sailing ship, but even smaller. We can’t go outside of the ship to fish. Wait, unless there is something to fish on the outside?
No, I didn’t think so.
You’re right, I need a project. Let’s look at this sword I picked up in the Lantern Dungeon. Tell me what it’s made from… in words I would understand.
Hmm… so nothing really special about it despite being used by a millenia old golem.
OK, next project. Armor. Tell me about the armor and space suits the normal crew would wear on your ships. I know about those skin tight suits that the others wear.
No, I don’t like them because it makes me feel too exposed. But I am curious how something as thin as a woolen shirt can provide protection like mail.
Nano-weave? So thin and really tough.
Venture, you’ve been able to create the ballistic armor I picked up on Khiron’s world with relative ease. Does that mean the material is easier to manufacture?
I see, less sophisticated. So what do the marines on your ships wear when going into combat?
Stop. What is this battle armor you speak of? Show me on the screen.
Oooohh, now that’s what I call armor. Venture, do you have the capability to manufacture one of those?
Yes, I would like one of those made. Wait. Is that all the same or can it be modified?
Well, depending on what a soldier does, we often wear slightly different armor. Oh, and on my world, it also depended on how much money you could spend. Those from noble houses had better equipment while peasants did not. But light infantry, often armed with spears, wore lighter armor for better movement. Heavy infantry, like myself, wore mail and used heavy weapons. But we couldn’t move as far or as fast due to the armor. Archers were very lightly armored, and even then, spaulders would get in the way of archery so they never had any.
Yes, both functional and cosmetic modifications would be nice. I suck at drawing but something tells me you are a much better artist than I.

So if we get back to Venture, willing to spend 2XP to have a battlesuit made by Venture. Will count as Battlesuit (page 254 of Cypher System Rulebook).

There are no nice things.

We arrived at a lovely main sequence red dwarf a mere 5 weeks after our departure from Phoenix Empre space. The trip was uneventful, other than Thorne playing with the reality Settings on the VR rig again.

Thorne’s latest ghost has been retailing us with tales from his species history. One of the more interesting ones was about how they would capture Astral Kraken beasts and convert them into living space zeppelins. People would ride in cupolas borne by the beasts and travell asterally to new star systems.

I have no idea how anything works any more, as that sounds like the sub plot to at least 6 different major novels from the golden age of science fantasy.

Regardless, we made to to the red dwarf named Chofa – an utterly dead system. The planet has an inordinate quantity of debris, with all planetary signs of civilization having been consumed by Jungle. Interestingly, there is no real evidence of fauna, just riotous flora.

As our survey continued we came across a spy sattelight keeping an eye on the planet. We jammed its signal party way through. So there is that. After a bit of conversation we brought it on board for analysis. It was biorganic, and as such I executed general order 043, engaged the object with weapons on hand and began a deep scan of all systems. So far no evidence of infection. Venture will continue to scan for anomalies as aprioiate.,

Excitement ended we made our way to the planet itself – evidentially a giant spiritual sinkhole of horrors.

So naturally we made planetfall on a shuttle that runs based on the stern will of some mage from 1000 years ago.

I really can’t make this nonsense up. Any sane editor would tell me to piss off with this nonsense, and advise me to not self-publish.

To continue, we made planetfall and found a massive active gate to the asteral realm.

Multiple members of the group sense a Great Disturbance in the Force, and are convinced of horribleness which I mentioned earlier. Evidentially the trapped spirits try to constantly possess anything and everything that comes into range. The plant life has been permanent ally scarred as a result. Luckily between Khiron and Thorne they were able to erect Intellect Fortresses or somesuch to protect us from the bad VooDooin.

And now there is a giant mass of biomass heading toward us. Odds that it will be suggested we hop through the portal instead of doing the sensible thing and retreating to the ship and bombarding the region to suppress the possessed vines……?

Olis recordings, goddamn planar travels

We are in the new star system Chofa, the home system of the lizard people. The planet Lytha is a giant spirit sink hole. It is dead.

Something about spy satellite and the others are talking about danger and explosions and not on my ship and stuff. They do something and they do eventually bring it aboard to examine it. It’s a little odd looking and Gabriel puts words to this feeling: Chagma. Uh, oh. Arden object reads it and it is not good. He reports it is part biological and thinking. Carter immediately jettisons it and uses the rail gun to create a spectacular explosion.

Thorne frees the lizard man from its own turmoil of returning to the planet. Unfortunately the spirit does not make wise choices. It attempts to possess Carter and Thorne is forced to ‘dismiss’ it, whatever that means.

We head down to the planet but Thorne detects a mental intrusion that the rest of us would not be able to resist. We retreat and Thorne attempts a ritual to protect us (2XP). He powers a staff with the ritual and we head down to the surface.

Once down on the planet, we head to the gate. It turns out it’s not just any gate but an astral portal. A lengthy discussion happens on what to do next. Thorne thinks agents of unlife come to this planet to destroy. The inhabitants escaped (?) through the magical portal. The unlife could not follow (could not figure out how to operate the portal?). They left things like the satellite to watch and observe.

I’m not keen on going through the portal. But Thorne does make a point that the more they understand planar travel, the better chance of returning me home. Of course, this is contingent upon Thorne sending me home. I’m not entirely sure about where their confidence comes from.

KindleNomicon Audio+Text entry - Thorne

We’re not entirely certain what lesson might be learned from this unfortunate Lizard-man Geas. Don’t search for spirits? Don’t Interact with them? Obviously that’s not an option for us. In a sense, this compulsion is something worth doing; transporting the remains of a lost soul across the galaxy so that it might finally know peace. But we hate having to do a thing. Give us an opportunity and we’ll jump at it, tell us we have to do a thing we probably would have done otherwise and we balk. Maybe there’s a lesson in that somewhere? The idea of free will is more important than the actuality of it? To perceive ones own actions as unconstrained is the actual desired state, even more than the truth of that perception?

Speaking of unconstrained action, we had a genuine caper! This was brought on by the unfortunate realization that Gromes wasn’t where we left him and his com signal was coming from Moorpoint – home of the Gargoyle tourism bureau and the Churchiest place on this rock. This led to a Geas fueled argument about whether or not it’s our responsibility to go and rescue him. Turns out, it is. So we did.

So, here’s the breakdown on the steps of the Great Church infiltration:

1. Seduce a priest and steal his frock and knowledge of the church.
Complications arose when we discovered the priest was a glorified repairman and in order to pose as his crew we needed to know how or if he would go about hiring non-church types. Because we left him naked and muddled, he called the police. They were there when we returned. Despite our fabulous cover story they were suspicious of us and so we had to erase their memories of our arrival. This worked, but left them with a nude priest in the back of their car, whom they didn’t notice for some time.

2. Jumpsuits for everyone

3. Looking up and forging documents for a churchy repair crew.

4. Turning up dressed as a priest and work crew with forged documents.(it worked! Also, yay blasphemy!)

5. Finding the access tunnels and using them to make our way to the cells.

6. Detonating a powerful EMP device, disabling all unshielded electronics in the city, including loads of really cheap cybernetic augmentations the Crimson hound guards were loaded with. This led to lots of unfortunate dying on their part, but also some timely disability for us. We lied to them, a lot, and got our friend Gromes out amidst the chaos.

7. ???

8. Profit

We’ve struggled with situations like this in the past, but for the first time, we really seem to be coming together as a group. We’re proud of everyone and proud we rescued Gromes. Despite the flagrant law breaking and possible accidental murdering of scores of augmented guards, this feels like a great moment for us.

Olis recordings, in the lantern cave

Our request to Venture for our heavy weapons was accepted but… it’s going to take a few days before Venture can make a capsule that can be dropped from orbit. So we decide to continue exploring the lantern cave.

I turn the central sarcophagus to point at the Indigo alcove. A five foot diameter metal cylinder rises from the floor. Inside are crushed bones and clothes and a pouch filled with ancient coins and a ruby.

Next we point the sarcophagus to the Yellow alcove. The cylinder appears and others call it an elevator. Some of the others can squeeze in two at a time but with my bulk, I descend alone. Down below there is a chamber with twenty foot ceilings. The walls are covered in reliefs of androgynous humanoids. I think they are paying homage to something? A passage out is blocked by a block of stone, perhaps a triggered trap? Carter phases through and reports nothing unusual so Thorne portals us past the stone block. Carter is attacked by some sort of tenticular monster with eyes but we make short work of it. We enter a large chamber with a central pillar. There are other exits to the right and left. As we approach the pillar, the room gets cold, really cold. The pillar is covered in frost and something else, which turns out to be the frost moss we (Thorne and myself) hand encountered on Mount Bubi so long ago on Aldamere. We warn the others away from it. We can see that the central pillar has indentations. I think the right side one is a wash basin. Was this someone’s bed chambers? Further exploration does reveal stone bed and a stone armoire. It is a bedroom. We find the skeletal remains of a body. Gabriel’s sharp eyes find a silver charm and two wands. Thorne claims they are minor magical items [Cyphers].

On the opposite side of the room is a red pedestal with a black stone egg. Thorne of course has to touch it and it turns into an elemental… a very angry elemental. Somehow Thorne manages to use his Kindlenomicon to understand its rumblings. Apparently it is pretty angry at being stuck here for a long time. It cannot leave the room as there is some sort of threshold. Thorne creates a portal out of the room to bypass the wards, and I walk through it to demonstrate the portal’s safety, and the elemental follows through. It rumbles in joy (I think) and sinks into the floor to go wherever that elementals go. We return to the sarcophagus room.

We point the sarcophagus to the Green alcove. Grinding sounds are heard. We remove the stone slab from where the cylinder usually emerges. It is stuck below about thirty feet down. Gabriel ties me a rope and I get lowered to see if I might be able to free it. I manage to do so but almost fall. Just then, I catch sight of something scurrying up the shaft. I cannot avoid them and their touch burns. I can hear hissing sound as parts of my armor bubble [medium armor reduced to light armor from damage). They are exuding some sort of acid it seems. And of course, one of them touches the rope and it breaks [Free Intrusion]. I take a hard landing thirty feet below. I am confronted by two giant spider like thing, only with much meatier legs and the body is a giant eye. I pick myself up the floor and manage to stomp one, but they are tougher than they look. I can hear fighting above as I try to avoid these spider things sharp claws. Eventually I see the telltale signs of Thorne’s portal opening above my head. The others join the fray and we make short work of the spider things, including the third one that joined.

KindleNomicon Audio+Text entry - Thorne

There is an important conceptual gulf between what things are supposed to be, and what they can become.

Example: A human body is meant to contain one “soul” with one “identity” but ours contains more. We have come to believe that there is a a considerable conceptual gulf between individual and plural existence, and because we became a plurality instinctively, we now encompass that gulf. Because we encompass that gulf, we touch the place in the universe where all other plural beings exist, conceptually. This gulf exists as an often physical presence, we feel it lurking just out of sight, constantly. We have visited in fact. The “mental labyrinth” that we retreated to with our fellows when struggling against the demon on the Venture was a construct that exists in that place, and not one of our individual creation.

This notion can be expounded upon to encompass worlds. A world has a default state of intentionality. It takes peculiar events (magic, vast cataclysms, huge fucking bombs) to nudge it out of this well trodden path, but we have seen examples of this in every world we’ve visited. Yen Enoth, the time fraught tower in broken Earth, the necropolis of the Necromancer where the soil was made of meat. In these places, the gulf of improbability yawns. Where the laws are loose and the walls are thin. We have touched it enough that we have begun to experiment in it’s use: teleportation, wormholes, things like these.

Now we have found a new location that manipulates these colossal forces. This time almost casually. These ruins of “the 3rd Epoch” seem to suggest that these “Aaqa” weaved the fabric of causality at their whim. But perhaps not. These destinations seem special to them. Temples and tombs. Perhaps the gateways were reserved for particularly important locations? The latest portal was of considerably different construction than any we have previously encountered. It had space inside, a sort of hallway, and in it lurked some monstrous agent of the Unlife. Was this construction a defensive precaution? Was it an accident? Some mutation of powerful magics left over time? We really must find out. We should try and find a way to tear it from inside the portal, so that it can be studied and possibly destroyed.

We must also try and determine the nature of the smoke spirits that sought to unmake us. Although not of the unlife, their perception of us “mud creatures” was such that they were compelled to try and tear us apart. While not inherently malicious, the distinction is academic. Although, we imagine a situation in which our sapience is adequately demonstrated to them and the inherently harmful practice of trying to see what’s inside of us discouraged.

Lastly, we begin to see a process through which we might come to more fully master the forces governing causality, at least in regards to location. Time remains the purview of Arden, for the moment. Thinking about distance as a limiting factor was misguided. The multiverse is as much an idea as it is a physical reality. Physical, scientific constraints, such as distance, are important for maintaining the function of such a system, but need not impede upon our ability to traverse it. We must simply know the notion of a thing in order to go there. The magics needed to get causality to agree with this concept will be more complicated than anything we have previously attempted, but the path is revealed. We will begin to unravel these mysteries.

Olis recordings; mindlink first, then move out

What the hell was that thing?

It began at the portal. It is a black and shiny, like glass, only black, and encased in the blue jade. It is inside the mountain. To get to it, Thorne portals us all into the cavern. Then Thorne just activates the portal and steps through. It looks like he is stepping through oil. The surface changes and ripples but becalms once he is through. Foolish to let the mage go through first. I immediately follow. It is a strange sensation as it feels like I am trying to move through water, pitch dark water. But then there is pain. I am raked in the chest by something that cuts through the modern armor. I strike out but whatever it is moves aside. I realize that the others will pass through after me, while this thing ambushes us. I must not let it. Again it strikes but my warrior’s instinct allows me to dodge its blows at the last minute. Unfortunately my own counter strike misses. Again the thing attacks and I am savaged. I can feel the life leaking out of me. One of my boots is filling with blood. I must flee. I try to move forward and stagger out of the darkness into a hallway. The wind is howling. I wipe the blood out of my eyes and see that Thorne, Carter, and Arden are here. How? Did they pass by me in the darkness? I focus and the pain retreats. Thorne is by my side, using their healing arts on me. I can barely hear them in this wind. Their clothing is also ripped and they bear the marks of injury. Carter and Arden appear unscathed. How?

There is a maelstrom in the hallway, and out of that arise four smoke demons. Thorne manages to hold one at bay, but the others are quick and deadly. You can almost feel the hatred coming off of them. They are fast and nigh impossible to hit. Through sheer luck, Arden and I land a few blows on the demons but I am not in the best condition to fight these demons. We are also missing our heavy weapons. Arden and I bear the brunt of their attacks. Carter takes a few hits but appears to be holding his own. At least he’s cursing up a storm like the sailor he is. There is a way forward but the demons will pursue us. The only way back is through the portal and the thing in the darkness. If we wait too long to retreat, the thing will kill us. Although Throne has one demon in his thrall, none of the others have fallen. I call for a tactical retreat as Thorne detonates the very air around the demons. Arden staggers through the portal. I hope he does not fall prey to it in the darkness. I try to pull Thorne but they are busy igniting the air. I cannot leave them so I cover their back. I scream over the winds that we must retreat, but a kind of mania has taken over Thorne. I think they are saying, “We can take them. They are ours.” A concussive blast almost throws me to the ground. It has been enough as the smoke demons dissipate. But are they dead? Or will they return? The wind continues to howl in the room but my own rasping breath is louder in my ears. We cannot stay! Finally Thorne relents and moves back toward the portal. When it is my turn, I am prepared for it. I duck and roll as soon as I enter the darkness. I felt the thing’s attack but evade it. I push forward and stagger back into the portal cavern.

This has been a bad day but it was not my day to die. That day is yet to come. I tell Carter that we need our weapons from Venture. Then there will be payback.

Carter's Vlog

Still not much to say. We headed back to Diamond Lake to meet up with Alistair and a bit of R&R. We discovered the new portal lead to the tomb of Icosal during our conversation. I was also able to make him a very happy scholar by sharing my recording of Thorne reading the ritual plaque – khiron was able to bodge together an interface between my PDA and his ‘betamax’ thing. The end result was some sort of archaic reel-to-reel recording on magnetic tape. Which means regardless it won’t last overly long so I’m not worried to much about it getting lost and falling into the wrong hands.

The next day we returned to the Whispering Cavern. Thorne proceeded to teleport away the cave in around the new portal so we could hop in and give it a go. This triggered a series of unfortunate events; everyone else was attacked while portaling by some sort of interdimensional foozle (it couldn’t smell me as I was not bothered during the transit). Worse, there were…. .sentient air beasts on the other side of the portal who wanted to see the fire inside the mud people (us). As you can imagine, fire extraction is not exactly a peaceful process.

Much confusion, chaos and conflict ensued – resulting in us driving off or destroying the beasties. Now on to the next thing….

Carter's Vlog

This will be a quick update as I stand in a cavern, amazed at what the current ‘civilization’ has obviously lost.

Bayonetta landed her black helicopter at Fort Lloyd after the bombing of Klono, murdered the crew, and then wandered into a bunker. That’s where things stand with that thanks to Venture’s surveillance.

We decided to drive overland to Fort Lloyd from Yellowtail. Naturally broke down, hacked a fix, then continued on until we met Khabri at a crossroad. He pointed out we were nuts. At his suggestion we diverted to Diamond Lake city as he had seen to blue jade before. In fact, he was the one who found the artifact initially.

• From the second epoch, the Anhoren civilization, who called it scry stone.

He took us to town for a night of debauchery, and then to the Whispering Cave Mine. The mine is from a Third Epoch civilization called the Gnair.

Lots of funky graffiti. Eventually found an odd cave with a stand and the shard remnants of a mirror which was evidently a portal. Still need to figure out how to unify thorns perceptions with ‘mainline’ physics which is apparently how this all worked. No inspiration yet.

KindleNomicon Audio+Text entry - Thorne

So, fuck… so It’s been a long while since we felt this close to death. A certain arrogance comes from believing oneself is on “the correct path.” It’s a thing we’ve always envied in the religious. It feels very uncomfortable to recognize it in ourselves. It took staring our death in the face, in the form of a terrifying cyborg samurai woman, to realize that just because we feel buoyed by the “will” of the multiverse doesn’t mean we can’t be casually murdered. Free will behind guns and swords is a bitch.

So we’ve found out that the blue glowy stone that Marva “discovered” has exciting properties. After carter handled it, it “phased” through a table. Luckily not through the hull of the venture. We hypothesize that it took on some of his properties? It also serves to enhance Khiron’s psionics. It doesn’t do fuck-all for us, but we suppose that’s fair. Not everything is magic. We slightly understand how Carter feels when we accomplish these amazing things with magic and they don’t even register for him. After all these discoveries it is casually mentioned that they saw a whole sarcophagus(!) of the stuff waiting to be loaded into a train, guarded by scary church knights. This while everyone is hemming and hawing over what to do next, which didn’t include the sarcophagus. Fuck, lets do that then?!

So, we found a burly fellow who worked at the station, Gwolp, and applied the sort of pressure we’re best at. We didn’t need to take things as far as we did with him. There was no reason to share with him the full range of our talents, but once we get going, the tendency is to take things as far as they’ll go, and he was a much better partner than we might have guessed. A very open minded fellow, with stamina and self-control. He was in a daze after, very pliant and open to suggestion, but we feared he might protest a bit too much when we made our inevitable exit. Sadly, we never got the chance to find out.

sharp intake of breath and a pause

Gwolp led us to the office where the shipping manifests were filed and just as we were making a copy, some stealthy villain turned his fucking head into a meat canoe with a very non-Valis future gun. We ran, diving behind the copier and then worm-holing through the wall. We didn’t have time to close it after we’d passed through and a monstous woman followed – about 7 feet tall and gaunt, with scary tech hanging off her and a cyberpunk trench coat. So we fought back, lashing out with the considerable force of our mental strength. She was unphased and she actually fucking shot us! More than once. It’s been a long time since that happened.

Our psychic assault having failed, we opted for one of the classics. Fire! More fire than we’ve ever created. It blotted out the alley and the tram-way overhead, it nearly blinded us with it’s brilliance. But somehow, the amazing cyber-cunt dodged it; dodged an entire alley full of fucking magical fire. Fuck. Unfortunately, the explosives her crew had placed inside the office nearby did not have her movie-ninja knack for impossible acrobatics, so they promptly blew the fuck up.

Say what you will about the Thorne siblings, we know when we’re beaten. So we teleported the fuck away from that madness, back to the hotel room and our waiting companions. Everyone except Carter, who had been attempting to rescue us when the building blew up. We hate to admit it, but we’re starting to like him a bit. He’s pretty good at this captain thing (although, we’ll certainly take the credit for causing that to happen) and he didn’t have to come after us. For future, we shall have to be a bit more particular about the contingency plan, although who knew they would be trying to blow up the building we were trying to steal records from? Happy news though, he didn’t die! All the bitch-thugs did, though, so that’s something. We patched him up, and ourselves, and that was the end of a shit day.

Oh, did we mention? The original manifest and our copy were blown up in the fire. However, we did get a good look at it beforehand and we discovered that the blue shit came from a place called Kolono and was being shipped to Port Horwald. Oh, and it was being guarded by knights from the church.

So we sort of ran out both ends. We started with Port Horwald because it was closer, but we didn’t find a lot out. Only that the file that should have listed who had taken posession of the goods was missing, the whole day was, in fact. A So we elected to try the point of Origin, Kolono. It turned out that Kolono wasn’t exactly a tourist destination. A fact made evident by its absence on any of our maps. We eventually located a cartography enthusiast who knew of it, and pointed us in the direction of a place called “Dog Itch.” So we set out. On the way, more and more folk got off the train until we were essentially the only passengers. The conductor questioned our destination, suggesting that we were ill equipped for dog itch and it’s surrounding desert. We needed water recycling suits and the like. So we made the decision to travel on to Yellowtail. The nearest city with an economy robust enough to actually exchange goods and services for currency. On the way there, we noticed a vast explosion in the distance. Venture confirmed the site of the explosion as the mine at Kolono. Fuck.

So, what do we have? A shipment of psionically active blue shit being hauled out of the earth at Kolono. The only reason we’re aware of it at all is because Marva, who is missing, found a chunk of it herself and then we happened to see some of it at the station. Then it was shipped across the planet to the spaceport and all points of record along the way are destroyed or removed. Oh, and the church is involved. So, this is a cover-up, and it’s big and important and we need to figure it out and take it away from the church before they use it for something nefarious.

The black helicopter headed to a place called Fort Loyd. So it seems like that’s where we’re going next.

Olis recordings; these cleaners take pride in their work

Carter and Arden reports that the blue jade appears to take on properties of whoever is touching it. As a result, it was able to ghost like Carter. Later when they come back from Venture, Khiron tries to use the blue jade. I had no idea he had powers! He’s able to move the blue jade with his mind! He’s also able to make mental links, similar to Thorne. He also reveals that normally he has to touch the person to form the link but the blue jade can act on his stead. He calls it a psionic amplifier but I have no idea what that means.

A week has passed and no sign of Marva. What to do next? Thorne goes to track the shipment I saw on the platform. Carter decides to tail Throne. Probably a good idea since he has a way of attracting trouble.

Well, I guess there was trouble. We hear an explosion in the distance and Thorne suddenly appears in our midst, all smoldering, in the literal sense. He’s slightly panicked and babbles about cyborg ninja bayonets. What? Get a grip on yourself, man… or, uh, woman since Thorne is distinctly feminine at this point. We get the short version which is s/he managed to seduce a platform worker into showing s/him the records and found that the blue jade came from Kolono. However, the worker was killed by an assassin. Thorne tried to retaliate with mind control only to find the assassin immune to it. S/he then tried his blast power, which is also nimbly dodged but leads to a massive explosion. S/he’s also been shot in the firefight. S/he managed to portal her way back to us. Uh… so where’s Carter? That’s when we get the call from Carter. He is severely injured and requiring assistance. Khiron and I go fetch him. He is not a pretty sight. I manage to bandage him up a little, which gets him on his feet. Aware that there could be eyes on us, we bring him back to the hotel.

Carter and Thorne require rest. The next night a much healed Carter scouts the local warehouse where the blue jade was stored. There is no evidence of such a shipment. To be accurate, there is a chunk of information that is missing. Someone has been busy cleaning up.

We decide to check Kolono. It’s not listed on the railway map. We are introduced to Digby who really likes trains and everything about them. He finds out that Kolono is a mining site way out there, and the closest railway town is Diggage, which is in the middle of the desert.

We take the train to Diggage. The conductor asks a lot of questions. We pretend to be prospectors but it’s clear that we have no training and no equipment. The desert is apparently a lot harsher than we thought. I’m going to have to ask Venture about these places I’ve never experienced. Anyway, we’re on the train when we notice a giant smoke column rising in the distance. Carter asks Venture for information. There has been a giant explosion and Kolono has been destroyed. These people are really trying hard to remove all traces of the blue jade. Venture detects a black helikopter (it’s a flying vehicle) flying away from the explosion, heading towards the direction of Fort Loid.

I feel we are always a step or two behind these cleaners. Our current plan is to disembark at Diggage and rent/hire utes and drive overland to Fort Loid. It’s the best we can do.

Olis recordings; where is Marva Tregga?

The others speculate that the Gargoyle was probably created by the ancients who also created the gate system that allows travel between the stars. They were called the Wyyfendovi.
As we get up close to the Gargoyle, several things happen. Thorne fades from view. Gabriel is in ecstatic convulsions. We keep him comfortable. Arden gets a gleam in his eye and touches the artifact. He falls over unconscious. Carter and Khiron appears to have visions, as they look dumbstruck with glazed eyes. Suddenly I am overwhelmed by my own vision.

It is the dark of space. There is a dark spaceship. It does not look like the Venture or Crucifix or any other ship we have come across. It looks more like a rock, what Carter calls an asteroid. There is a chamber inside. There are many gate keys. One in particular catches my attention. It is the central key, ancient, with patina and tarnish. The key leads to somewhere important. I cannot hold onto the vision. I am falling away from it. The last bit I get is the ship’s name, Scion.

We gather ourselves and head back to Marfos, the capital city. We contact Gromes and are told the Inquisitors came around asking about us. Time to move (damn Gabriel). Marfos is a canyon town, built along the sides of the cliff face. The higher you go, the better the view, and obviously costlier. Nobles always want to look down upon you. When our train rolls into the station, I notice something a little odd. There are stacks of coffins on the platform, except, they are also guarded. Why would dead bodies need guards?

We decide to track down the geologist Marva Tregga. We visit her office at Kastamir Associates. We learn that she came back a week ago, spoke with the senior partner, and left in a hurry. Arden and Carter turn on the charm and the man mentions that her office is not locked. Hmm… In Marva’s office, Carter finds a mislabeled blue jade stone. Would she really have made such a mistake. It’s a clue so Carter pockets the stone. We find nothing else so we leave.

I get a sense that we are being watched, and sure enough there is a watcher. Arden uses his timey wimey powers to observe. The watcher is Grey Squirrel and he calls someone named Big Daddy. We decide to split up to get rid of the watcher and the trackers he called in. I manage to give them the slip after pretending to shop in the market area, then bolting away.

I meet up with the rest of the group and head to Marva’s domicile. Turns out it’s also being watched. What has this girl gotten herself into? Carter scouts by doing his ghost thing, and Arden and I slip in from the back door. The place looks tossed. We leave a message for her, just in case she returns, for a secure meeting location, her favorite food place.

We do some more digging around. Ralston K was mentioned before. It’s where she shipped equipment before. At first the shipper knows nothing about it but it turns out that it’s a secure site for Vrestag Industrial. It’s unlikely that Marva headed back there.

We decide to split up. Arden and Carter head up to the Venture. Carter needs Venture to analyze the blue jade. He also really wants to go into mercantile trade. He’s going to have Venture make things to sell. Meanwhile Khiron is gathering up local salvage and busy repairing things. I get sentry duty as I watch the food place for any sign of Marva. Good thing I have a partner I can talk to at any time. “So Venture, tell me more about your security protocols. What kind of external threat assessment do you do when you first encounter another spaceship? Internally, what do you do when a ‘guest’ arrives?”

Olis recording; miners, explosions, conspiracies, and super-golems

We head into spaceport town to explore. Immediately, and I mean immediately there is trouble. Thorne informs us that a Knight of St Hrond (heavily armed and armored) is tainted by the Unlife. And of course we are accosted by one Knight Maug (secret? Champion of Unlife?). How did he know? Sure, we look strange but no stranger than others. I have my suspicions. If Thorne can see them, they can see back. I will ask Thorne this. We manage to talk our way out of this, but we are clearly in their sights. The handgun and knife feel so small compared to the heavy plasma rifle and greataxe.

We come upon a gathering of people. They are complaining about House Arcturi and the rumor that we heard about the House betraying the miners. Suddenly, an explosion rips the place apart. The building is heavily damaged. We move to help. Of course, Gabriel calls upon powers beyond. I shake my head as yet again what we do attracts attention. He glows with the holy power and people notice. Meanwhile Thorne uses his surgeon’s skills to help the victims. It is utter chaos. I try to impose some amount of control over the situation and have some minor success. Arden informs us that he has peered into the past and found the bomber. Only, there were two attempts. The first, hidden attempt was the real bomb. The second, clumsy, identifiable attempt was meant to point the finger at the miners. Later, Gromes has secured us lodging. We decide to anonymously inform the Miner’s Union about the set up and real culprit.

We travel from the spaceport to Moorpoint, the seat of power for the Archbishop of this planet. There are many “tourists” as Arden calls them but I think many are pilgrims. They come to see what we have come to see, The Gargoyle. I had no idea it would be that big. It is, in essence, as tall as a small mountain at a thousand feet tall. Then the others tell me it is not a statue but an artifact. It is or was at one point a golem. I, I don’t even…

Carters vlog

We successfully made planet fall on the planet Bureaucratopolis where the System Baron and his lackeys Lackey about. Also there is a chapter of the Church militant – whom we ran into before we even left the space port. They adhere to galactic standard grumpy traffic cop demeanor. It is good to know that some things are universal. We managed to avoid fleeing from the gaze of their Authority as we presented our papers ( literal paper! Nary a biometric to be found! What an odd bunch of neoBarbs these are ).

Anyway. Knight Chaplain Maug evidently found us suspicious and felt the need for a once over. We made it through that gauntlet without incident, but I am concerned how he zeroed in on us from the get go.

We did the tourist thing for a bit whence we came upon a Miners Union todo where they were protesting Arcturi for their role in worker exploitation. It seemed a rather festive affair until a bomb went off. Much harried running about and scanning for follow on attacks ( I guess I’ve seen to many terrorist affairs in my day as my first impulse was to look for the follow on attack against the first responders ) as the group pitched in to help. We managed to discover the entire thing was a set-up, with the bomber very obviously trying to make a show of being an anarchist. Straight out of the Propo handbook. The more things change I suppose.

Venture was able to pick out the site of some planetary com nodes that were active during the bombing. After dealing with the locals’ idea of analog encryption she was able to pin down military traffic, Church traffic and the tail end of something from the Eminence saying they should follow up about us. I suspect further visits from Maug and his cohort.

Eventually we made it to Moorepoint, the seat of the Church ( a huge tourist location ) and “the gargoyle” which is clearly some sort of powered down, radiation absorbing Apocalypse Voltron.

What do you mean it's all bloody analog?!

This is the first official vlog of acting Captain Carter Hamilton-Smythe of the Venture.

We’ve made it to the Caliban system by hitch-hiking and propelling on the mega-derelict. Douglas Adams would be proud. One of the first things we did was to sort out a crew manifest of temporary assignments. The ship recognized this expediency until we could once again come under the Command Authority of the Admiralty. Thus, me as acting captain. These are tremendous shoes to fill and I will do my upmost to serve The Vessel and to represent The Dominions to the best of my ability.

We have hired a local guide named Gromes. His new salary is evidently 1000 solarian credits per month. An intriguing tidbit in of itself. This leads me to wonder, is this an alternate Empire of Man? Where is Terra? Is this the far future of what we were building? Or some sort of twisted disaster produced by the infinite mutability of the multiverse? Either way, the entire situation exudes absurdity.

On his advice we are masquerading as explorers from the Second Republic. Evidently it is not unheard of for entire clusters of lost stars to reappear now and then.

It turns out that Caliban is ruled by a combination of aristocratic satrapies and medieval style guilds who create monopolies around certain techs. Evidently they’ve lost democratic institutions here. In any event, we will endeavor to join the ‘Spacefarer’s guild’ as soon as reasonable.

As such we made for the System Capitol where we set up a line of credit were we could purchase innumerable permits, licenses, and tax fees for everything under the sun (confirming this is a human system at the very least).

We did find out that while the natives were shocked by our method of travel via Einstein-Rosenburg bridge, the authorities rapidly lost interest when they discovered Venture is not ‘jump gate’ capable.

Amusingly, the natives use a very similar method of FTL jump travel as the Venture, but their analog (!) computers simply aren’t capable of performing the required calculations. This opens up an opportunity. The native system economy seems to revolve around resource extraction (animal protein and minerals) as well as relic mining. So it is quite possible that we could hop to a nearby system and set up auto miners to produce alloys or minerals they find rare here in order to pay off of debt to the Guild and bureaucrats.

Long term we need to figure out how to make Venture gate capable (which should hopefully require only modifications. We need to do some analysis of how their keys and gates communicate, and then how the physics interact. Perhaps some packet sniffing probes are in order), and then resume fixing the Skip Drive so we can become dimensionally capable.

Outside of that make ourselves useful to the locals and not get so into hawk that the tax assessors or the local church inquisition decide to seize Venture. Reminder to the team; let’s not oversell our competency. As such, skin suits are to be covered by utility overalls when mingling. The FAB and Venture’s AI are to remain on lockdown as much as possible when the locals are about. (this also includes the Food prep area. Let’s start a chef of the week / day rotary. Last thing they need to see are FABbed pho, lamb vindaloo and such things). No need for them to get interesting ideas about the shiny bits. I would hate to have to space Gromes because he decided selling info about Venture was in his best interests.

Memo so self: FAB some pans, spatulas and other miscellany when Gromes is sleeping.

Further note: enquire with our Esotery Officer to see if he can put up ‘this is boring’ fields around certain parts of Venture.

Final note: Train Olis on Security spaces and procedures as well as making certain he has correct access to the security and anti-boarding systems.

I need an even more final notes field. Training for Arden on ship processes and capabilities ASAP.

Olis recordings, arriving on Valles

I chat with Venture. She has a lot of information. For example, the sun here is A3V white main sequence star named Caliban. I have no idea what that means. Therein lies the problem. Too much information can cloud a command decision. In addition, what she tells me often does not mean anything to me. It’s like asking a question in Hrondene, and the reply is in Dolmnic. She needs to use words I understand.

The others return from the Conger Reef. Apparently they have hired a local guildsman to guide us. His name is Gromes. I’ve dealt with his type before… greasy.

He gave us a run down on the power structure:
The Baron runs the system and is the local representative for the Empire.
There is the Guild which controls stellar commerce.
There is an Archbishop representing the church.
There are three major Mining Companies (Rockannon, Teledyne, Vrestag). Mining is the lifeblood of this system.
There are some other noble houses.
Then there is everyone else, including the Miner’s Union.

He also gave us a brief history lesson:
4993 First Emperor Contantine Hawkwood
5568 Rain of Fire and closing of Hammadryad
5715 Atrulinos line founded by Dârsax the Fair
6036 Ibanzag line founded by Ubaros the Despot.
6317 current year, current Emperor is Alunos the Black, fourth Ibanzag Emperor

We make contact with the red planet Valles. Under Gromes guidance, we pretend to be Second Republic survivors that are reestablishing contact with the Empire. This gets us through the border. Good. I think we need a gate key of our own if we are to travel the stars. We can’t be hauling that derelict Crucifx everywhere we go. How to get our own key? That is the question.

Some rumors we picked up:
Tensions between the mining companies and the miner’s union is rising.
Kooj piracy continues to plague the shipping lanes.
House Arcturi implicated in Teledyne kickback scandal.
Geologist claims new crystal found but has since disappeared.

KindleNomicon Audio+Text entry - Thorne

So we talked and they listened and now we have a logical choice for Captain and for XO; Carter and Arden, respectively. This seems almost as it should be. We might have preferred it the other way round, but that’s what opening things up to democracy means. It’s funny, they thought we wanted to be Captain. Have we presented ourselves as someone who wants to control them? Maybe in as much as we cause things to happen that maybe not everyone wants to happen. That’s a bit subversive. Maybe that’s why.

But thinking on the implications there, we do need to change. We have gotten what we wanted. A means to move vast distances and possibly even to travel between dimensions. We are delivered unto a new reality. We have been shown that cosmic forces move in the Multiverse and we have been given the opportunity to manipulate them for the good of the powerless. What we always suspected is true. So this imp that we present as, It’s got to be reigned in. If we are to play the role of the Wise, we must project wisdom. We know enough, and have seen enough, to do it. But the urge to pick at the seams of everything is so great. We have been so long at playing the malcontent that we’ve almost forgotten that something would be required of us when we removed all the things we were not content with.

So, the Carver was a force for change in the Universe and she has given us the means to be the same. This has to start with proving to those who have come with us that we can be that force. So, the imp must show restraint. It can’t really die, not really. But it can’t color our interactions with our companions and those whom we meet to the extent that it has. We need to be able to be relied upon for more than mystic nonsense and chaos. We are a source of knowledge and Wisdom. Our bearing must reflect that. For good cause.

Even now, some of us, all of us historically, have made decisions because they are safe or pragmatic or efficient. When we (Erasmus and Chezza) were split, we made every decision to be made whole once more, caring nothing for the larger implications. But in our (the Party’s) encounter with the bugs, it was made wholly apparent to us that the time for us to make safe decisions had passed. We have to care. We have to seek to understand. We have to put ourselves in the role of potential enemies and ask “why do they do this?” If the answer is anything less than malice or allegiance with the Unlife, we must show restraint and compassion. We perch on the fulcrum of cosmic events and we must not be petty or safe in our actions or thoughts.

Then, and only then, can we start to work against the forces that have beset this place, and lift the people suffering under them up. The Eldar have corrupted the Church Celestial, the Emperor and the Noble houses. At least, that was the state of things when Carver was last here, and nothing so far indicates that this has changed, only progressed further.

So as we go, we must try to gain a clearer picture of how those corrupted forces interact and at the same time seek the key, determine what it opens, and whether or not the door will solve the problems in this place or make them worse.

We can’t wait to begin.

“There is no passion in nature so demoniacally impatient, as that of him who, shuddering upon the edge of a precipice, thus meditates a Plunge.”-Edgar Allan Poe, The Imp of the Perverse

Olis recordings, I hate guilds

Remind me why we are helping the space bugs? I like not this idea but the others seem insistent. They have fashioned a helmet that can talk to the bugs. The bugs are not like the Chagma. They do not think well. We can tell they want to leave the star system but that is about it. If we take them through the gate, we could be releasing a plague upon the next star system. Thorne tells them we will help them in return for the cessation of hostilities. I understand we need the gate opener on Crucifix but taking the bugs with us? Well, it’s not on my conscience.

Since Crucifix is one big derelict, we turn the Venture into a tug. Carter would be mad but he’s not here. So we haul Crucifix out to the far point. Moving further away from the sun makes the bugs even more sluggish. Eventually, they go into hibernation. So why not squash them while they are down? Whatever.

We transit the gate. We are in a different star system called Caliban. There are numerous planets orbiting the sun. We are taking all of this in when we are hailed! The Conger Reed asks if we require assistance. There is much talking and it appears we need guild permission. Pesky guilds, I don’t trust them. Of course, we are not from here, or even from this universe, so I don’t care. In fact, we discover the Conger Reed is not moving. We approach and we find a freighter in need of repairs. We don’t know these people so I armor and arm myself. The others insist on going unarmed. Screw that. That is exactly how that young idiot noble that I served under got himself killed in the fifth year of my service. It’s easy for Thorne to say go unarmed because he has magics and his mind is a weapon. In the end, I agree to stay behind and be the cavalry. They’ll call me if there is trouble.

Which leaves me all alone on the Venture. Hmm…
“Hello Venture, can you hear me?”
“Yes sir, I can hear you. How may I be of assistance?”
“Well Venture, tell me more about your history. When were you commissioned? How long have you been in service? Any commendations? Tell me, I’m all ears.”

KindleNomicon Audio+Text entry - Thorne

Audio recording transcribed into text, also available as an audio file on the KindleNomicon.

So the problem is, as usual, why, and consequently, who is interested in why. Why are the bugs on Crucifix, were they brought there? Did they come there on their own, Why? Are they organic, if so, who created them, Why? They want to leave and they want us to facilitate that for them. Why do they think we would and what do they want on the other side of the god door? Are they agents of the Unlife? They don’t seem un-lifey, they also don’t seem to represent the Conquering force, because, no conquering, as far as we can tell. So they’re on this big ship, they leave the drive core intact, redesign the rest to their tastes and then, when we arrive, we witness them do two things that seem fundamentally opposed, they fight us and then they try and communicate.

We’re not in agreement with Arden on what this means, however. He’s just had his skull raped by an alien mind-fuck prong. Of course he’s full of “kill it with fire.” That doesn’t change the essential intent of the act: to communicate. Which it accomplished, however inexpertly. So WHY? Their purpose doesn’t necessarily seem to be to destroy organic life. They’re in orbit above an inhabited planet and they left it alone. We know that they can not only survive in vacuum, but can propel themselves through it. So what do they want, why are they here and what are we destroying if we kill them?

Why would we chose that? Because communicating with them further is dangerous, possibly fatal, and we need the ship they’re on. That seems a poor reason to start killing.

We don’t want to kill them. They don’t seem especially driven to kill us. The only problem is communication. We need to have another look at Arden’s head wound scans and see if it’s possible to rig up something to serve as a go-between.

Olis recordings, I'm sick of bugs

I am getting sick of Crucifix. We were traveling through a bug tube and happened upon a crossroads of sorts. There was a big spiral shell and the bugs were marching by it. Thorne says they are moving from dark to light to warm up. The ones coming back from the light move faster. We portal our way past this mess and end up in a corridor with crystals and such. Acid spewing happens so we once again portal past that mess and end up in the control room.

It is a strange sight. A giant cube is suspended in mid-air with lots of cables and conduits running into it. We get on it to look at it closely but something else was looking at us. Arden gets his head pierced by tentacles. Yes, through his helmet. I try to take a swipe at the tentacles but miss. Then Thorne cautions us not to harm it as Arden is trying to communicate with it. With WHAT? I stay my hand and shortly after, the tentacles withdraw. Unfortunately the holes in the helmet it created, not to mention Arden’s head, does not seal up. Arden almost dies but we manage to get him back to the Venture. It was close as we had to seal the helmet first or he would have died shortly after. But that meant the holes in his head were bleeding a lot. That did not go so well and I’m not sure what the others gained out of this futile exercise. The ship cannot go anywhere as it lacks the engines. The only hope was to get information but that was not fruitful. So we decide to head out to the point in space.

The trip is taking several weeks but we are well stocked. The Damians are getting used to the weaponry of the ship. I too become very comfortable with the operations of this heavy plasma rifle. It is not as satisfying as seeing a blade cleave through armor, muscle, and bone, and feeling the impact travel back through your weapons to your arms, but it’s pretty good.

So we are here and it’s impossible. We from Aldamere say there is an old man’s face on the moon. But this? This _thing_… this planet (?) is carved with four faces: Latimer, The Green Man, The Androgyn, and a female face none recognize. I don’t know what it is. Thorne performs the ritual. I almost jump in surprise when the eyes of the faces open. What? What? I don’t even know what to think anymore.

You are my density

This is my Kindlenomicon, it’s a fine thing, really. It probably needs a better name than that? Maybe not.

A certain healthy recklessness has always seen us through through difficult moments. Although, it must be said, we try not to harm our friends with our choices. They might tell you otherwise. There’s really two ways of looking at this recklessness. On the one hand, our choices move us forward, and frequently in directions that the others might not have chosen. We can’t or wont apologize for that. We would never stop apologizing, and for what? Forward momentum is all, the multiverse calls to us, it’s secret song guides us toward destiny or oblivion. On the other hand, we sometimes are impetuous in the moment and make choices that inadvertently harm our friends. For that, we are sorry.

We teleported onto Crucifix station because we’d just learned how and new toys! But we hadn’t quite gotten the hang of the magic and we drug Olis along with us. Lucky we didn’t explode him, or us, innit? Then there were metal space bugs coming out of Gigerian hive resin walls trying to murder us. Thankfully Carter and the others whooshed in with the venture and skidded it right in the middle of the hanger. Crazy battle ensued. Up was down, dog was cat, magic was muscles. Nothing worked right, very :( Very confusing. We pushed off the station wrong and ended up spinning through the void. That could have been the end without Teleport. This time we got it off right. So we bamf’d back onto the Venture and helped get rid of a few of the bugs. Then everyone was aboard and off into space again.

Something technical was intuited or scanned or both? Arden and Carter and Khiron, some combination thereof, sorted out that the more we riled up the bugs, the more energy they used. They have a finite amount, so if we keep strafing them, eventually they’ll run out and we can just pop them. So we did that for a tic with the ship and the rail gun. It worked pretty well. Kind of boring even, which is the hallmark of having the upper hand in a space battle type situation.

So, we made a drone and sent it into the ship’s bum. Things were discovered! Not sure what really, but we went inside and crawled forward until we got into the engine room. There was a big “bulb.” The bulb was wonky with density. It’s density kept changing, but not it’s mass. Pretty exciting stuff really. There was talk of prizing this device open, which we strongly argued against because there were loads of cables running from it everywhere, which says to us “POWER”. If a thing with variable density is or can power the entire ship, prying it open might equal EXPLOSION or DEATH. We followed one cable to a hull panel and pried it open. Inside were bits covered in runes like the ones on the “key”.

Then we opted to follow the biggest “trunk” of cables which ran forward up the middle of the ship, straight into bug country. We followed it and soon found the weird resin stuff that the bugs make. They consume and reform the ship walls (bulkheads?) into shapes that appear to help with heat dissipation and ease of traversal, for them. We ended up having to wormhole inside one of their tunnels because it completely blocked the way forward. Interestingly, the material of the cables wasn’t harmed by the bugs at all, so either they can’t or won’t re-purpose it into their resin.

Automatons with business suits clinging black boxes,Sequestering the blueprints of daily lifeContented, free of care, they rejoice in morning ritualAs they file like drone ant colonies to their office in the sky

So there we were, peering at the hangar bay of Crucible through all of the sensor suites we had at our disposal, when two startling things happened; first Thorne and Olis teleported (!) from the bridge to the hangar bay of the derelict. Then out broiled a hoard of… Space bugs.

I kid you not.

Giant mutant radioactive acid spitting space bugs.

I have no idea of they were from the 5th Dimension or the planet Zod, but at this point I couldn’t legitimately counter either assertion.

Regardless. Thorne and Olis found themselves in a bit of zero g bother I began to move the vessel away from the station so we could affect a rescue without putting our vessel at risk, but I then realized there simply wasn’t time. So with a bit of inspired piloting I flew the ship into a space which would have had me cashiered by the Admiralty on general principal if they were about to review the logs. (although the skip in the time log was really odd…)

Thus began a general scrum and montage of punting bugs, watching Thorne drift by, getting Gabriel medical attention from exposure to acid and vacuum followed by me and mostly Khiron patching the hull where necessary.

We then bodged up a drone to explore the aft of the derelict. This showed vast cargo spaces and a dead engineering section (probably because all of the nuclear piles were taken to the surface to warm bath tubs….). Eventually we took the drone too far forward where it was promptly eaten? Disassembled? No idea.

Hours later we played a bit of railgun tag with the bug swarm trying to thin the herd of space bugs.

All of this then begs the question; what next? We could probably clear the vessel of bugs. We would then have to figure out if it is possible to get the vessel up and running again (which may be possible due to the bugs hiding some sort of power source in the toroid). We would then have to find some way to evacuate the population of the planet below, or at least provide the medieval nutters with the way to get to and fro, provide piloting lessons – once we figure out how the monstrosity works…

I am still in favor of examining the rest of the vessel to see if we can recover any salvage, but I believe if the Hawkwood clan want to explore the galaxy they’ll need a commercial freighter instead of this thing.

Olis recordings, fighting space bugs

So we are over at Crucifix when giant bugs swarm us. And by us, I mean just Thorne and me. They are the size of large dogs and they do not like us. As they come at us, I try kicking them but something weird happens. It’s like… I’m not kicking them with my muscles. It’s like I have to WILL my legs to kick them. It’s really tiring to think that hard. So I managed to kick two of them but they do not splatter. Unfortunate. I manage to dodge their attacks but there are so many of them. It’s not looking good.

Then suddenly the Venture is there. I thought they were going to crash into us. Carter sure knows how to pilot the ship, or is it the Ehi Eye who is doing the piloting? I jump onto the hull of the Venture, just like the bugs are doing. A hatch opens and there is Gabriel, Khiron and Arden. That’s when I notice another type of bug on the station. These bugs are much larger than the swarming bugs. They are like twice the size of a sturdy ox and shaped kind of like a river snail. They also kind of glow and the next thing I know, I hear screaming from the comm as Gabriel is hit by something that the cone bug spit out. His suit is melting and Khiron is scrambling to tape him up. I don’t see Carter but I hear him screaming to get the bugs off of his ship. Apparently Thorne has made it to where Carter is so he’s safe. I lost track of him when he went hurtling off the station. Anyway, I hop over and kick more bugs while the Venture starts to pull away.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, the bugs can swim through space. How? Don’t ask me. My comrades told me there was nothing in space, which is why we wear these ridiculous outfits. So how can bugs swim through nothing? Hmm… I guess Venture does sail through space so maybe space isn’t nothing. I remember something about magic and the ether. Maybe space is ether? Bah! Too much thinking, not enough action.

We get away from the bugs and Carter gets to fire his railgun. There is much glee. Once we are safe, there is a long, boring discussion about what to do next. I mean, we either go to the other place in space, or we clear out Crucifix of the bug problem. There is much talk about having all the people on Damaina come onto Crucifix so they can sail away from the apocalypse. They tell me Crucifix is actually a huge ship but centuries old. But maybe it can’t sail anymore. Well, then why are we bothering with it? Thorne insists we need to save the people on Damaina. Those people have lived on the planet for many centuries. They didn’t even know about this prophesy. It clearly hasn’t happened yet and who knows if it will actually happen. I stopped listening after awhile and took a nap.

When I awoke, Carter and Khiron had made a small robot so they could scout Crucifix. The bugs are on the side of Crucifix where the sun shines. So we go send in the scout from the dark side. Inside, It‘s all metal hallways. Carter thinks it looks bad. The “engine” is worthless, confirming that it can’t sail. Eventually, the scout robot gets eaten by bugs.

We should stop worrying about this derelict ship and go to the other place in space.

Thorne wants windows!

Khiron’s Chronicles: Everything went to Hell in a Handbasket
So much has happened since I last sat down to write I barely know where to start, at the beginning I guess. We, Mr. Dwight and I, the newcomers Olis, Thorne, Marcell and Gabriel, travelled up the Tennessee, recovered the materials we needed to create the Gate and were on our way back to Gateway City when the unexpected happened. We had recovered a blue wedge from agents sent by Cavile. I am not certain how but something Thorne, it is always Thorne, caused us to be transported to a spaceship in orbit around the 8th planet, Uranus. We managed to jump the ship back to Earth orbit but in overcoming the demon who had taken it over somehow triggered the ship’s Skip Drive to activate again. Being improperly calibrated the thing jumped to another universe far removed from my own or to the far future, or past, I am not certain which.
In this new Universe Man had made the jump to the stars but had become complacent and indolent. They lost the knowledge of the technology they had made and started treating it as religious icons with the resultant inevitable effects. Ignorance, stupidity, confusion, idolatry, everything those of us in New Manhattan had sought to avoid. Somewhere along the line Marcell became an alternate version of himself named Arden, Mr. Dwight managed to avoid the transfer to a ship called the Venture and Olis lost his spear and magic helmet and starting kicking people. Oh, and we picked up a new companion, Carter, who was once female but isn’t now, or it was his sister and her ship or something, and he can walk through walls. Between that and Thorne’s constant gender switching and histrionics I sort of lost track of most things in any regards for a while. There was a lot of teleporting, random teleporting, three maybe four times, and Universe hopping, or time switching or whatever, lost track, do not care anymore.
Anyway the “new” “Universe” we found ourselves was in orbit around a planet named Daneana or something, it was such a miserable pit that the locals actually bathed in nuclear radiation of the “Star Hearths” AKA barely controlled nuclear fission piles of Uranium and Plutonium, as Holy Light to cleanse themselves. They used these things to power 3-D printers as well as warm their bath water and wondered why they were mutating, going sterile and dying off. Oh, and they had enslaved sentient trees called the “Woose” and sought to exterminate beastmen who they called the Couj. Oh, and there was lots of sex, they liked having sex, except with Thorne, which was amusing. And murder, of teenage girls, about inappropriate child rearing practices and Olis, and orphans and creepy stuff involving candy.
I sort of just let most of this stuff slide off until I found the warm shower locked inside the High Priestess’s painting, just before the zombie hordes attacked and we escaped using the mostly broken shuttlecraft with a demonic curse on it. This all sounds nuts, because it is. Nothing makes sense anymore from the football shaped transport ship that Carter hates to the genetically doomed Hawkwoods who believe themselves the surviving royal family of the Phoenix Empire of Man and their sacred pornographic woodcuts, while we are the Offworlders who will lead them to Ascension! Really, I cannot make shit like this up.
We finally find a clue, something involving a “Woodhenge” and magical brouhaha that seems mostly delusional chemical inspired nonsense but we made it off the planet and back to the Venture, hot meals, hot showers, decent food and beds not filled with lice. We has some bee line to a Portal/Gate something 3 AY out and have the key for it, I think, when we get there but along the way we need to stop at a some ship in orbit at the L-1 point of the planet and the sun because Olis or the new Marcell, err Arden, sure, what-the-ever, says that dead people wanted to get the Key we have, a cylinder with Runes! RUNES! TM! to Crucifix Station, or something, or some such for reasons. REASONS! He travels in time, and dimensions, which all suck and were destroyed so he ought to know! Yes! Do that! So we pilot a course near it to check it out before headed out to the way off the elliptical Portal/Gate 3 AU out.
While Carter and I and trying to rig a way to get over to the rather derelict looking Crucifix Station, which, it turns out is a torus with a central spine tidally locked so that one side always faces the sun, Thorne teleports him/her/zer/they/I-do-not-care-what-the-f***-pronoun-it-is-using-anymore self and Olis over to the ruined docking bay on the station itself. Did I mention the station is miles long and millions of times our volume in size? Opps.
Anyway… as soon as they do so bugs, lots of bugs, pill bugs with twelve legs and nuclear powered heinies, hereafter known as “space-bugs” come swarming out of the darned thing. The “space-bugs” try and hump Olis’ legs… and either mate with Gabriel or try to clean his spacesuit with ionic acid goo, not sure which, while somehow Carter, who was trying to pull the Venture, away only managed to nearly instantaneously dock with the station instead. Opps?
Bugs, here, bugs there, bugs everywhere. Carter and I manage to push the things off the ship while Olis avoids mating and I duct tape Gabriel up so he doesn’t die from the ionic bug sperm. Carter manages to order the Venture out to a safe distance and somewhere somehow Thorne managed to get insert-pronoun-of-choice-self back to the ship while complaining about many, many things.
At this point some wisdom is used and we use the three dimensional printers on the ship and my skills to make a reconnaissance drone to explore Crucifix Station. We discovered that the ship was centuries old, or older, it had been retrofitted eons ago by people who did not know how it worked to work using the Star Hearth technology that the locals used to stay warm and ruin their sperm, which had been stripped from it along with nearly anything else useful (to build what the locals called their society) that the ship was a hulk in space, would never move again, and was missing nearly all its cargo pods, supplies and materials and, oh, yes, somewhere along the line became a home for “space-bugs.”
I tried to convince my companions to leave the darned thing alone and that we should go off to the Portal/Gate whatever but they decided that genocide against the “space-bugs” was not morally repugnant because “CHOGMA” and “space-bugs!” made sense somehow. I have tried to dissuade them of their folly and that we should leave the nice explodie space-bugs to the derelict ruin of a spaceship and live and let live but no… Carter seems to delight in using his ship’s rail gun, the science truck’s only real weapon to kill “space-bugs” while Thorne is somehow convinced this is the ship that will save the people of what-the-fuck ever. I have tried to reason with them but reason has failed. I will just go an make myself a sandwich. Seesh. “SPACE-BUGS!” Oh, and Thorne REALLY, REALLY want windows on spacecraft. Really, it’s a thing!

at least we're off the damned planet

First and foremost, we got off of the damnedable planet! Well, other things happened first which I should cover.

While we are back on planet Khiron and Thorne showed a rare burst of teamwork, codging together a useful aluminum hat that allowed Thorne to see the magical signature of the Carver (you know, the mage responsible for all of the wood carvings and other productive things, as opposed to the shite who thought a fuel bunker of zombies would be a useful bit). Given this knowledge Thorne was able to replicate the ‘magical biometrics’ of the Carver to crack the Kindlenomicon. This revealed a vast tome of ‘spells’ and other instructions on how to hack reality as far as I can tell. None of this still makes any sense. I still have yet to find any correlation in genetics or electromagnetics that explains this. This simply tells be I do not have the technology to measure whatever it is they are doing. Perhaps an interaction between gravometics and the weak force…..

I digress.

More importantly, the kindlenomicon had files warning about ‘The Advesary’ warning any mage who could access the information to leave the planet as soon as possible before attracting the attention of ‘The Adversary’. This sounds like the ‘noplace’ entities described by the other they encountered during Skip Drive Transition. Apparently The Adversary is a pseudonym as well.

Lovely.

Next we opened the Thumb-drive which contained the spells “Find the Gate” and “Open The Way”. I’ll have Venture analyze the underlying parameters of these spells now that we are back onboard. Perhaps she’ll understand how to utilize them so we won’t be reliant on Thorne and stonehenges to use these devices.

Which reminds me, we built a wooden Henge based on ‘Find The Way’ which allowed Thorne to provide the three-dimensional coordinates of the Star Gate in orbit.

After all of this removing the ward from the shuttle was easy (apparently).

So the group and some representatives of Hawkwoods (all 4 of them. I really need to write down their names) flew back to the lovely converted science frigate. I’ve been working with the Operations Subroutines to give me and the rest of the party access as appropriate (Olis seems solid, (for example) but I really don’t want him to have command authority over the rail gun – today anyway).

We decided to investigate the Crucifix vessel first (not a bad idea, given the warnings about the Adversary – we really may need to come up with a way to perform a general planetary evacuation (population 10k or so), and some way to escort the population away from here!). I started to maneuver the vessel into a synchronized position so we could attach emergency cables and a gantry, when apparently Thorne became bored and bloody teleported to the other vessel. Judging from the screams they’ve run into trouble.

It should be a given that I’ve halted docking maneuvers and I’m now training the rest of the group on the use of exo assist suits and mag boots – since, well, firing DPU-tungsten rail gun rounds into the Crucifix probably won’t help given that it is a 10,000-year-old derelict.

Olis recordings, in space

Floating in space is a strange feeling. There is not up or down. Carter calls is Zero Gee. I asked why Gee? He said the Gee stood for Gravity. Then why not call is Zero Gravity? Anyway, at first I did not feel good. But I remembered this old sailor trick, to look beyond what’s near you. Well, that did not work since beyond is nothing and I could taste the bile rising. Then as I looked down at my feet, I thought to myself, my feet are the ground. Then things got better. I tried moving around and it’s hard. You move one part of the body and the rest of the body follows. It does not stay put. You need to move really slow. Or you need to have something to push off of. I’m not even sure how I would fight. We are in the dock area of the station so I can push off of walls to move around. That is neat. You can sail across from floor to ceiling. The problem is when you get to the other side. I almost smashed my head into the ceiling. Thankfully the helmet of the “suit” protected my head. Although, this “suit” is uncomfortable in places. It’s too tight. It feels like I’m not wearing things. It feels too open. It feels vulnerable. According to Thorne, I would blow up without it. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but without the “suit” we cannot be in space. So I wear this ridiculous outfit. Anyway, I’m getting the hang of moving in Zero Gee (Ping! Olis gains two point skill, 0-G Maneuvering).

Right, so we are up in space. We managed to get off the earth in the flying craft. Much repairs were needed, which mainly involved Khiron cursing a lot, but it can now fly into space. So we were able to get to Carter’s ship. Well, he says it’s his ship but who really knows. Thorne was upset that E.L.I.S. seems to not be there anymore. Something about being taken in or becoming part of Ehi-Eye. The ship talks so that must be her name. But I thought she already had a name, Venture. Maybe Carter’s world’s ships have two names?

We could have gone to two places. The location on the map we found, which is further away, or to Crucifix Station. It’s closer so we went to the station. It is huge! The place seems abandoned but Carter asked Ehi-Eye and she said that there is movement on board the station. So there are things hiding in the abandoned station. Carter starts talking about docking the ship or taking the small craft out or putting up a line. At which point Thorne got bored and decided to portal himself over. I felt a sudden pull. I tried resisting but it felt like it was going to tear my arm off so I went with it. And that’s how Thorne and I got over to the station’s empty docking bay.

Fortuitous time to level up

We spent a great deal of time hunting down some anomaly man. Must, at some point, get to the bottom of why people turn up like this. Usually more innocuous, but this one’s arrival registered for the others too. Something about a galaxy where they shout at their spaceships and everything is covered in words? He could understand us only when he rubbed our skin? Who designed that?

Imagine if we had to communicate in this way:

“Excuse me, I need to touch your bare flesh in order to have a conversation. Oh, what’s that, you have no idea what I’m saying?” – Rub rub rub – “Oh, now I understand you, why are you screaming ’don’t touch me, don’t touch me?’”

Anyway, Arden’s radio was squelching wrong, we flew the shuttle to a hill in a lightning storm, shit! Carter complained about not being able to see stuff, about everything not being British enough, about climbing the hill in the lightning storm. We did that, found Leftenant bad-touch and then went back to the church. Oh, also fought Bandersnatchers and dodged wild wooz with amazing wormholes. We wasted the better part of a day sorting out his arrival so not much time was left to crack any of the mysteries that will get us going.

Going to try and collect our thoughts on the next phase:

We discovered loads of interesting things hidden within the Basilica. Many of which are unresolved. Here:

1. Thumb-drive of Thesme – contains information, hopefully. No devices we currently have possess the requisite port save the Kindlenomicon, which is still locked to us. We need to either unlock said device or build an interface for another one of our devices.

2. Virus in the woodcarvings – This string of characters starts to try to overwrite any device it is scanned with. Frustratingly, our techno-mates are loathe to let it do that on their precious floating robot whatevers. This “virus” could be the key to many things. Maybe we should let it take over the robot part of our brain? Don’t think it would work though. If it did we might become a demon and kill everyone. Hardly ideal, so for sake of argument, we’ve got more to lose from it.

4. Summoning circle in the Shuttle (the Necromancer) – Summons a demon into the shuttle, effectively preventing us from leaving the planet. Meddling wizards!

5. Cryo-Coffin – Determine what is being held inside by the warding. See if there are ports for the Thumb-drive?

First thing should be unlocking the Kindlenomicon. It’s the safest(?) of the magical locks taunting us. It’s shrouded in the best sort of eldritch mystery: It’s locked and we had a wiggy dream about a shadow coming from it to molest us, like all the best grimoires do.

One hopes that, once unlocked, it may reveal secrets about the nature of the other magical traps and problems that we find ourselves faced with. To do this, we might somehow extrapolate a magical “profile” from what remnants we have of the magus, largely his artistry and spellcraft evidenced in the woodcarvings. One envisions an image of the caster left in the negative space of his works. Every spell, even seemingly identical, must be somehow unique to the caster, and given that we have multiple examples of his magic, that should be enough to form a simplistic mystical effigy or to imbue another being or item with a false magical “signature” – enough to fool the book. We might even be able to summon his spirit from wherever it’s gone. (Tier 5 ability, Call Otherworldly Spirit)

Along all of these lines, we have been pondering the metaphysical underpinnings of things. It remains our theory that the multiverse is organized in some fashion, that it has a collective structure or will or both. That existence is supposed to function in certain ways and when it doesn’t, beings and the like are utilized to correct these errors. It is our hope to function as an agent for this multiversal will and spend many long years traversing the furthest reaches of causality. We have been attempting to find the voice of this will – the resonance binding all this crazy shit together.

We believe we are hearing it, now. We are hearing something… (Tier 5 ability, Knowing the Unknown)

We didn't die again.

Hiking in a lightning storm is good for the constitution. And the sinuses. And proving conductivity. And sterility. Among other things.

So there we were, staring at the deck of the improbably named Nox Nox pondering the meaning of ritualistic magical summoning circles when Arden quipped that his radio was squawking with some sort of non-random pattern. Thusly we stopped our debate about the nature magical machinations and Important Things I Can’t Perceive and peered out of our communal gathering hole to examine the horizon. There, off in the distance was a mountain range. As we watched clouds appeared to be gathering with the occasional strobe effect of lightning. The coincidence of a freak storm and notable patterns across the radio spectrum proved too strong a lure.

This is how we found ourselves in the EoMSS (Empire of Man Star Ship) ‘Deathtrap Vomit Bucket’ flying in the midst of a thunderstorm looking for a mountain clearing. Well, “flying” to a certain definition of the word. More like failing to fall apart and crash at the moment as we move in a particular direction generally whilst praying not to die.

About what you would expect riding in a 1000-year-old craft.

Luckily, we survived this harrowing peril by landing in an oddly perfectly shaped clearing near the tree line free of boulders. After a few moments of investigation, we discovered that the clearing was caused by a fungal growth. He mentioned something odd about spirits here, but since none of the rest of us can see his visions we moved on (in spite of my concerns about hiking during a lightning storm).

We managed to survive that as well, but it was a far closer thing than the shuttle ride. Most of the party nearly took lightning strikes. But that wasn’t the climax. Oh no. We achieved the summit whereupon a Heisenbug-Singularity spontaneously formed allowing some sort of exo-fighter craft to slam into the summit. Luckily the pilot had enough time to activate his crash gel, resulting in his survival in spite of the total loss of his craft.

I was able to survive this by an interesting reflex which I wasn’t aware of while the rest of the team dove for cover. There followed yet another oddity; as Gabriel was fishing out Commander Spaceman, four ‘Bandersnatch’s’ (tigers with odd properties) felt the need to attack us.

This resulted in a general melee, with the oddity of fungal spores being exuded by said tigers whenever they were hit (this bit will be important later). Short of the long, I nearly lost my leg to Bandersnatch toxin and we learned a few things about Spaceman Tom, namely that he could understand us although we couldn’t understand him. Eventually Gabriel was able to start up a conversation due to his invaluable gift with tongues. This was how we found out that he was from something called the Runic Empire – apparently a High Technology space faring society that has learned to leverage magic by voice. I Really need to understand how this whole magic thing works.

Thereby we decided sitting on a crater on a mountaintop seemed unproductive so we headed back to the ‘Impending Death By Gravity’ shuttle.

We made it back to the clearing only to discover that the fungus was rapidly trying to eat our un-space worthy spacecraft. It also was commanding Wooz… Woozes? Woozi? Gerwozenshaftenkampf? (whatever you call a herd of animated tree monsters) to smash everything. Thus began an Italian Job of hijinks and panic as we played dodge limb distract while Thorne worm-holed me into the shuttle (how! Damnit, how?!) in order to kick start the damned POS with a hand-crank and a prayer.

Needless to say we survived assault by sentient fungus and fled back to the Basicilla.

We spent the rest of the evening drinking tea from hopefully potable water, talking with whatshisname from the Runic Empire, and trying to come up with a plan around what to do next. Two things; one we have to remove this curse from the non-space worthy EoMSS ‘Ohmygodweregonnadie!’ and what can be done with this usb keystick we found in the statue.

Also! I’m going to ask Khiron if he can cobble together a working computer out of spare shuttle bits to see what happens if we let the ‘virus’ take over a stand-alone system. What’s the worse that could happen? Never mind. Thorne can make wormholes with magic and I can stand in the middle of a shuttle crash. I probably shouldn’t tempt the Demon Murphy with such musings.

objects not appearing whatsoever may eat your face

Short of the long, we found a secret door within the Canonesses’ chambers because of ‘Magic’. This is becoming a recurring theme; we cast about, looking for clues and then Thorn points and unobservable woojum frolicking in the woodwork that only he can see which “Unlocks The Answer”! I swear I am putting him in the portable fMRI unit in med bay when we get back to the ship with instructions to magic like a madman, until we can discern the fundamental underlying principles such that some of the rest of us will have a chance with all of this. The fact that only Thorne can see some of these things will bite us in the arse.

I’ll come back to that in a bit.

Back to the open door. We climbed up and about, into an attic studio apartment – bed, shower and knick-knacks included. Thorne apparently saved us from some sort of magical curse then the group started tossing the place for clues while I BLOODYWELLSHOWERED!

Ah brief bliss, free of grime and nits and gnats and everything else one would imagine from a planet of permanent medieval camping trips. Suffice it to say the others found the magic kindle of we can’t open, a collapsible camelback, a towel (probably not peril resistant), some reading spectacles, and a carving knife.

And buttons on the bed.

Which revealed another ladder leading down.

So down we went! Only to discover that zombies lived somewhere within the structure. Here begins a lovely slow motion chase scene involving us climbing for our lives away from the undead, punctuated but horrible noises and odors from below.

We made It to a hangar deck somewhere above Basicilla Hamlet which held a shuttlecraft, which proved workable – although it needed fuel and many good thoughts and wishes. Kiron and I went about putting the ship in order as the rest of the group engaged in climbing zombie murder Olympics. We added fuel, read through the pictures in what looked to be the ubiquitous flight manual written in hieroglyphics – the usual panicked procedure.

The flight went without a hitch once the Murder Olympics came to a lull. After a short debate we flew the craft down to the hamlet instead of the Venture (this turned out to be a wise decision, again revisiting Things Only Thorne Can See in the future) where the natives Oohed and Awwed over the holy chariot of St. Timmons. Whatever strikes their fancy.

From there we made short work of the rest of the zombies, sealed the entrance and rested. Causing nightmares because evidently there is some sort of summoning circle tied to the deck of the shuttle leading to a black hangry pit of unpleasantness (what lovely dreams THAT caused). This was only revealed because Thorne used is special vision on the ship. Which he neglected to do before we flew to the ground. It was also determined that had we taken the vessel out of atmo it would have triggered the circle to summon and unspeakable bloody tentacle thing to eat our (or in this case my) faces.

I am very grateful I didn’t give in to impulse to kip off to the Venture to pick up supplies. I imagine a scenario of leaping through the shuttles walls and hoping to land on the Venture while phased. Seems like a fun adventure to read about – not to experience. Which brings me back to the need to figure out HOW TO SEEANDMEASURETHISMAGICCRAP. I’m putting Thorne in the fMRI scanner on the ship once we get back for a month if I must! Because this ‘almost dying to things you know nothing about and have no way to observe’ is becoming… tiresome.

Enough kvetching. After a not so sound rest we explored the rest of the tunnel network where we found the one time zombie filled fuel tank designed to unleash death upon anyone who opened the studio.

To sum up; one upon a time an old gaffer who liked to carve in wood lived in a studio apartment behind a magic door in the middle of Medieval Theme Park Land. He had some magical widgets and he may have been responsible for carving the Woodcuts which would excite some future travelers from Aldemere. Someone else, who may have killed said gaffer, decided to booby-trap the shuttle and the rest of the hidden bits with zombie traps and curses. And there is an actual dwarf in what appears to be a cyrostasis pod in the vestibule of the church below all of this.

I am forced to conclude that someone REALLY doesn’t want travelers to crucifix station and was willing to go to excessive lengths to prevent said visits.

Let’s go there. It’ll be a holiday complete with amusement rides and carnies! I love this plan!

Arden, Carter, Gabriel, Khiron, Olis, Thorne

Leaving the events and outcomes of Swingford behind, the company set off for the final leg of the journey to the Basilica of St Timon. Lord Hawkwood and his companions were all eager to compete the journey as it was a pilgrimage among their people. The site was in the keeping of the Order of St. Sylvester, devout archivists which we hoped would provide more insight into the world of Damaina and the strange connections to the world of Aldamere.

After a week’s travel by foot, and many discussions around the campfire with Lord Hawkwood and his cadre, the company arrived at the Basilica. It was an enormous structure which provided shelter to a small community catering to the modest needs of pilgrims. It was clear that the outer artifice of the Basilica was some artifact of a bygone age, which appeared to the technologically inclined to be the intact wreck of a space ship.

Within were a number of wooden buildings housing the priests, the tomb of St. Timon himself, and a number of wooden carvings portraying the Saint. Below was a crypt with the ashes of many of the Hawkwood family. We were greeted by Deacon Ramon, and viewed the displays with due awe and reverence at least from the Hawkwood contingent. Thorne was fascinated with everything, and the images proved quite unsettling for Gabriel. Within the tomb was purported to be the remains of the Saint, but to Aldameri eyes the Saint was not a Man but a Dwarf. The religious images appeared to be straight out of Aldamere history or at least Themse Apocrypha. The locals all insisted it was stories of Saint Timon, but it was clearly images of Saint Latimer. Where they saw Lady Elinor Hawkwook, it was really Thesme (in her mortal guise). Even the dread Lich King of Aldamere made an appearance. Thorne and Khiron were able to see that a few of these images were magically hiding further information.

The company was keen to see the archives as well. Our request was granted on the condition we took part in a Mass of Cleansing and Blessing. Thorne was resigned, Gabriel was keen, and Carter was appalled at what he termed “a blatant disregard for nuclear safety protocol!” as the ritual involves being bathed in the light of the Star Hearth. The archives proved to be a collection of ‘post-rain’ tomes, a couple of “thin-client tablets”, and a few ancient “newsreel” recordings which Khiron was able with some effort to get to partially replay. Studying the tomes took some time and perseverance, telling stories of the Knights of White Fire, stories of the Knights of White Flame, a Damiana bestiary, and the Life of the Saint of Damiana.

After some rest, the company was invited to dine with Canoness Wineford. In the discussion, Thorne relayed the many interesting hints of secrets within the Basilica, and the company beseeched the Canoness for permission to explore them further. After much discussion, it was agreed as long as we shared the learnings and took pains to protect the integrity of the artifacts.

The first stop was the crypts and a strange wooden statue of Lady Elinor Hawkwook. Within one of the eyes was a “puzzlebox” which Khiron was able to open to retrieve some small device. It’s use was unclear, but was clearly of some import. The next stop was investigating the magically concealed images, beginning with the carving in the Canoness’ dining room. After some study, Thorne depressed a series of specific places on the image, and was rewarded with the opening of a secret door revealing a ladder leading up…